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Re: C-41 at home

Back in the day when I was using this stuff a gallon per week, I would store it in a "hot" cabinet at 100 F and fill the air space with marbles in the bottles to use up the air space. Later I was using it with replenisher and keep them topped off that way. Once they discontinued Vericolor film I never liked any of the "unnatural" color films so I got out of it. I even had this paper processor that had 3 @ 2 1/2 gal tanks of Flexicolor for the chemicals with floating lids and temperature control. It used baskets that held 100 8x10" sheet of paper. You dipped and dunked them and dried them off in a RC print dryer. That was $900.00 well spent for the volume I was doing. I had four sets of baskets, I think they cost $100 each in the early 80's, and while the first two were being fan dried I used the second.... was always ready to print more. One print I used a 8x10 film hanger. Just had to top off the tanks with replenisher. Fortunately for me digital printing was getting better. Been there ever since and don't long for a smelly wet lab and worry about expensive chemistry going to waste.

If you can hold the temperatures in a lot of ways color processing is easier than black and white. There is only so much you can do with color before you blow it. With B&W there is lot you have do to make it look better.

Greg Lockrey
Wealth is a state of mind.
Money is just a tool.
Happiness is pedaling +25mph on a smooth road.

Re: C-41 at home

Originally Posted by al olson

Seeing that the last purchase of 2.7 liters of Kodak C-41 Bleach cost me $47, thirty dollars for the whole 5 liter kit sounds very cheap.

I have been researching other alternatives for my C-41 and RA-4 chemicals and have been trying the ones recommended by Denver Pro Photo that are produced under the label of CPAC. They use these chemicals in their processing lab and I have been pleased with the results I am getting. See my earlier post:

Re: C-41 at home

Perhaps I should have clarified that the 5 gallon Kodak kit I mentioned in my post above was the developer only. Once opened it's the developer that starts to decay the quickest and has a limited time before you have to toss. However, I am currently working out of a kit that I first opened in May and the color is still good (I mix the chemistry as I need) and will last for several more months before I will have to toss. Of course I will have used it up by then

The rest of the C-41 chemicals - developer starter, fixer, bleach & bleach starter, and stablizer all have much longer shelf life once opened which you can, within reason, regard as essentially unlimited.

Yes, the cost of Flexicolor III ready to use bleach shot up astronomically but I managed to acquire a 12.5 gallon bladder kit from Chang's (now Buffalo Imaging) in the LA area. This purchase, which cost me ~ $250 with the shipping, brought my bleach cost down to about $18 a gallon from the $25 that I was paying for the ready to use product.

Pasted below is a 2010 reply from the forum setting out products and codes:

Here are the Kodak cat# of the C-41 chemistry that i order for my jobo.
I cant find the cat# for the 1 gallon developer kit that kodak sells (if they still do) but the 5 gallon requires the starter.
The bleach is a ready to go 1 gallon bottle that is not diluted and does not require a starter.
Hope this helps.

Re: C-41 at home

With the Kodak chemistry you can. In fact there is a Kodak tech Pub you can download from their website on how to mix smaller than packaged amounts of chemistry: they do the math for you. However their chart always ends with 1 liter of replisher mixed. Sometimes I only need 750mL of replinshier so I spend about 5 minutes doing the math for each and make sure that the measurements are exact. Works perfect for me.

Re: C-41 at home

I am getting my Tetenal kit this week too.
Can you mix little amounts? (say I want to develop just one roll of 120 or 4 sheets of 4x5 at a time with the Paterson Orbital)

or do I need to make 1 liter of each chemical and store it?

If you look here, you will find about 50 comments.
Many of them give some practical information regarding mixing and storage of the Tetenal kit, and one large review is simply a very good how-to for beginners.

Re: C-41 at home

I have been using Tetenal c41 for 2 years now...

So here are a few of my thoughts. This c41 kit is really great stuff... 5 liters is just over a gallon..The 5 liter kit all liquid very easy to mix, i use distilled water to mix..i use it over 3 months...unless you have a jobo processor or equivalent processor; process at 87 degrees or 20 cel..... temp easier to control ... i use a Beseler roller so i over heat chems by a couple of degrees, seems to work great......Tetenal c41 dev process is panthermic with some restrictions on time and temp. The negs have more contrast than Kodak process. The negs really scan well with my v750 Epson. Fuji 160 not so good...Kodak Ektar is the best film to use with Tetenal... you will really like Ektar for scanning.. very good dynamic range with really great shadows... With some fuji films the shadows are a different color balance.... Chemicals toxic so handle with caution...use rubber gloves if your skin is exposed rinse well.... dev make my skin itch.....

Re: C-41 at home

The one liter kit is called the press kit..harder to mix.. it was not 5 gallons it was 5 liters ...LOL LOL You should know; you buy gas by the liter..... 5 liters is just a little more than one gallon. i have never used 5 gallons for home use.....if you roll a jobo tank it uses less chemistry than a tank....2500 or 1500 series tanks use substantially less chemistry if used right.... i use a Beseler roller base to turn my jobo tanks.... works quite well. I know there are few others here that do the same thing.... BH sells the 5 liter kit for around 70 tunies plus shipping or are you guys using francs these days... LOL LOL love canada in the summer

Re: C-41 at home

Originally Posted by tgtaylor

. . .
Yes, the cost of Flexicolor III ready to use bleach shot up astronomically but I managed to acquire a 12.5 gallon bladder kit from Chang's (now Buffalo Imaging) in the LA area. This purchase, which cost me ~ $250 with the shipping, brought my bleach cost down to about $18 a gallon from the $25 that I was paying for the ready to use product.

Pasted below is a 2010 reply from the forum setting out products and codes:
. . .

Wow, Thomas, this is very good to know, but I don't do enough processing to use the five gallon quantities. And two hundred fifty dollars for 12.5 gallons of bleach would be outside of my entire color budget for the year. For me that is a lifetime supply. In fact buying chemicals by the five gallon lot would be extreme as I only use 5 to 10 liters each of C-41 and RA-4 during the year.

The cost of ordering RA-4 papers by the roll instead of being able to buy the cut sheet boxes is also causing me to look at non-Kodak sources. The pricing of color supplies in what is available, now from Kodak, in larger quantities is reason I am looking for alternate sources as well as shooting more monochrome. If I can still afford the silver.